Vacation

My vacations have been anything but relaxing in recent months and frankly, I am DYING for a good ol' boring, do nothing, sleep in, trip to anywhere but here.

In June we took off for Robin's Nest for a week...with the in-laws. No sooner did we get there, than Mr. P and I bailed on his parents and drove up to Ohio to be with my family. My grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. He was 90. Surgery wasn't an option.

In July we went to upstate NY for a week...with the in-laws. Almost ALL of the in-laws. Mr. P's parents. His sister (and 4 kids under 10), his brother and sister-in-law, his uncle, his aunt, a cousin's family...where we attended a service and celebrated the life of Mr. P's grandmother. 

We just returned from Robin's Nest last weekend and it was somewhat like the June trip. My grandfather passed away the week before and no sooner did we get the truck unloaded, than we were back on the road and headed for OH. Grandpa turned 91 in July. The world lost another proud WWII veteran a month later. Semper Fi granddad - you will be missed, but we are at peace knowing that you are with your wife and son...two losses that you never far from  thought. He lived his life on his terms. Up until earlier this year he was still running around on his scooter - though he had to downsize from the Vespa to a Wildfire. The Vespa was just too heavy. I didn't tell my mother this, but the morning of his visitation, I was up early to iron our dress clothes and Mr. Paisley was still asleep upstairs. While I was ironing there in the hallway (the only space with decent lighting and an outlet for the iron) I caught a whiff of ol' grandpa and I cried for a few minutes before telling him that I was happy he finally got to come see the cabin that we all knew he would have loved - he was just not up to an 11 hour drive from FL, nor the 5 hour drive from OH...and it was hard enough to get him on a plane to spend the summer up there, so no chance of getting him on a plane to Knoxville. No limits on the other side. He's free to come and go as he pleases now. 

Not only have my vacations (or lack there of) been rough, but my whole department at work has had it rough this year. There are 8 of us. My manager lost his mother while I was on that trip in June. My director lost her father. One of the nurses lost her mother-in-law and her mother within a few months of each other. While I was in TN / OH on this trip, her cousin passed away - they were more like siblings. As if that wasn't enough - the program manager's nephew was killed in a motorcycle accident over the weekend.  We all need a break...this is too much.